A Failure Of Conservative Media

I was disappointed to see that some of the biggest critics of MSM unwittingly took a page from their book in vilifying a Christian conservative educator from a California public school.

The story concerns Dana Carter, who was accused of an angry parent of forcing her child, and others, to “kneel before him” and worship him like a king. The story didn’t pass the smell test, but the knee-jerk reaction by some on our side to perpetuate this story without so much as a fact-check is inexcusable. California students were not “forced to kneel before principal” as one headline stated. A member of Carter’s family reached out with this commentary:

My cousin was a Gym Teacher & a Coach for years before becoming a Principal. “Taking a Knee” is a very common procedure in sports, as I’m sure you know. “Kneel before me!” does not equal “take a knee”. The policy in question was to have students take a knee when the bell rang to prevent the stampede to the door. Apparently the year before, there were a lot of incidents of tripping, falling, shoving, scraped knees, etc, in the mad rush for the door at the beginning of school & after recess. My cousin used this coaching technique to prevent injuries & potential lawsuits. One parent blew it all out of proportion without discussing it with him first. I’d bet that one parent would have been the one to sue the school if her precious little angel had been injured in a stampede to the door.

The school board is standing by him, for now. I hope and pray they continue to do so. My cousin is a Godly Conservative man, and would not fashion himself a king or any such thing. I am physically ill after seeing so many people who are completely willing to destroy one man’s life without getting the other side of the story.

Carter is not talking to the press at the request of the school board who want the story to go away. Silence helps neither entity, but that’s what we’ve got.

If some out there want to be recognized as more than “just bloggers” then they owe to their readers to perform due diligence on a story and pick up the phone and make some calls. Is this not one of the very things for which we criticize traditional media?